This blog contains assorted news and commentary on the fundraising profession and philanthropy gathered by the AFP Fundraising Resource Center.
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Many charities hold events throughout the year where a small business can help.

Charity events can range from car washes and bake sales to high end auctions at evening galas. A small business owner can find a number of ways to donate their product or service to help their chosen charity, by simply being creative and aware."

Geithner May Reconsider Tax Deductions: "Charities are concerned about the deduction proposals. The Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy said that they oppose the proposal that would impose new limits on charitable tax deductions."

Thursday, March 05, 2009

If you were expecting the sky to fall as 2008 drew to a close, there’s good news: It didn’t happen. Sadly, however, we found that nearly four out of five of our clients raised less money during that period than they had the year before. Response to acquisition mailings fell 12%, and average gifts declined slightly in house appeals. But the details tell a far more complicated story. Read on . . ."

Petersburg People’s News (V2) » Three Southside nonprofits merge operations – Strengthening for lean times - Petersburg, Virginia: "The Nonprofit Resource Center located in the ARLS main library in Hopewell provides books and other materials on starting and managing nonprofit organizations as well as free access to online resources such as the Foundation Center Directory Online. “We see the Center also growing toward more of a meeting place and incubator for collaborative and innovative ideas and action,” said Chuck Koutnik, Coordinator of the Resource Center since it opened. Focus INC, previously a program of The Cameron Foundation, provides nonprofit training workshops. ConnectSouthside.org is the free, community-based knowledge network that provides one-stop, on-line access to these and other local resources and facilitates communication and advocacy. Enhancing the ConnectSouthside.org web-based technology through new and innovative applications is a key component of providing expanded resources and services."

idealist.org - A Little Bit More: Donate Your Birthday: "So, why not? When your next birthday rolls around, consider asking your friends and family to make a donation to your favorite organization instead of presents. It's great for kids' birthday parties, too. Check out these resources for turning a child's birthday into a learning experience from Children for Children and ECHOage."

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Academic Endowments: The Curse of Hoarded Treasure - BusinessWeek: "Something seems wrong with the way elite U.S. universities finance themselves. The problem: They're addicted to multibillion-dollar endowments. When the endowments suddenly shrink, they can seem more like curses than blessings. Harvard University, the richest institution of higher education on the planet, gets about one-third of operating funds from its endowment."

As the initial shock and awe subsides, the huge dollar figures swirling around Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme have become clearer, and while they might be a bit smaller than originally feared, they’re still big."

National Endowment for the Arts Information Related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ('Recovery Act') recognizes that the non-profit arts industry is an important sector of the economy. The National Endowment for the Arts is uniquely positioned to fund arts projects and activities that preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn. As part of this important investment, the Arts Endowment is developing a plan to expedite distribution of critical funds at the national, regional, state, and local levels for projects that focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts."

Monday, March 02, 2009

Soaking the rich may hurt the poor | detnews.com | The Detroit News: "President Barack Obama hopes to build support for his spending programs by promising to fund them with tax increases on the wealthy, since wealth is so out of fashion in post-Wall Street America. One of his proposals is to reduce the amount those earning more than $250,000 a year can deduct from their taxes for their charitable contributions. The deduction would decrease to 28 percent from 35 percent.

Nonprofits nationwide are protesting the change, fearing it will reduce incentives for giving at a time when donations are already falling because of the sagging economy."

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Stanford University raised $785 million in fiscal 2008, receiving the most money in U.S. higher education for the fourth year in a row and surpassing the $650.6 million donated to Harvard University."

The Senior Class Giving Committee is short of its 2009 class goal of attaining 50 percent senior class participation in terms of monetary donations.

Karen Paulson, the committee’s vice chair of marketing, said that the organization fears that the state of the economy is causing several seniors to pass on donations that would increase the totals for more than 65 funds to benefit UCLA, including student scholarships and educational research. Paulson added that the committee thinks prospective donating seniors are unaware of the donating efforts."